Celt's Humble System (split from McIntosh Forum)

Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

Peanut Head
Jim: Very cool pics of cool gear! :) This past year I was on a mission to find a CDP that would soothe the digital nasties and provide enough output voltage to make my power amp "bloom". After trying many, many players (including a Sony 777ES SACD), I found warm and glorious bliss with a McIntosh MCD-7008! I have a Pass Aleph 30 power amp which is Class-A and single-ended. I truly love the way it sounds and the way it is built. But it is butt-ugly compared to the Macs! :D Here's a pic of my humble system.
 
A beautiful, straightforward system...very simple and elegant! The Pass is a whole lot prettier than the old SAE A205 plain-jane amp I recently sold on eBay. Nevertheless, you certainly have a system to be proud of, and oh...that Mac!

Not sure...are those loudspeakers the single-driver variety similar to Moth Audio?
 
The speakers have an internal exponential horn that exits the rear and they use Fostex FE108-Sigma drivers. The Horn Shoppe makes some like these, but mine have been modified for a smoother response and better bass. The Moth's use either a port or a TL design.
 
Celt how do you like those Fostex FE108-Sigma drivers? I believe they are referred to as "extended range" versus "full range" like many of the other Fostex drivers. Cain and Cain also use those drivers in some of their speakers. I've been thinking about building some front loaded horns with those drivers.
 
Ward: I love them! I had prior experience with the grandaddy of this very driver when I was a kid (Foster FE-103 Alnico) that was in a sealed walnut enclosure. I missed those speakers and didn't realize until just a few years ago that Foster and Fostex were the same company. (D'Oh!) The Sigma drivers take quite a bit of time to break in, so you have to be patient with them. But once they do, you are rewarded with some of the most natural, near-holographic sound you may ever encounter. The series like mine has been replaced with the E-Sigma series. These have a slightly more extended bottom and top end, but the off-axis stuff is slightly worse. It kind of bothered me that they changed the cone after nearly 40 years of production; but hey, time marches on I guess. ;) I think Fostex offers a great product for the price. By all means, give them a try! BTW: I measured the response of my system as 55Hz to 18kHz +/-3dB. (The horn amplifies the bottom end below 80Hz.) They play loud'n'proud and with plenty of authority!
 
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